Helium is fun for voice changing at parties, but it has numerous more uses that are exceedingly important. Solar telescopes and MRI scanners are two of many places where the use of helium in gas or liquid form is essential. Sadly, the average person only knows that their kids want helium-filled balloons on their birthday. According to The Independent, helium supplies are on the wane, which will likely cause a price spike. The world’s helium supply is dangerously low.
The situation without helium
The Helium Privatization Act of 1996 was a boneheaded move by the United States Congress that opened the floodgates to waste this natural resource. Helium became a cheaper by the dozen resources, which has dipped severely into supply. The 1996 law also calls for that all the helium in the United States National Helium Reserve near Amarillo, Texas, be sold by 2015, regardless of market price. The deck is stacked against helium for the rest of the world, too.
Why running out of helium isn’t good simply because?
Cooling MRI machines with liquid helium have been customary in hospitals for some time. Terrorists are tracked via radiation-powered devices that require helium for operation. Nuclear reactors and wind tunnels also utilize helium, the previous in helium-3 isotope form. Helium is good for safely cleaning rocket fuel tanks, which NASA loves. It could all be gone in 25 to 30 years, as outlined by experts within the know about helium.
”Once helium is released into the atmosphere in the form of party balloons or boiling helium, it is lost to the Earth forever,” said Cornell physics Professor Robert Richardson, a Nobel laureate.
Helium: From where do you hail?
The Sun’s nuclear fusion creates helium as a by-product. Not only that, but the radioactive decay of various rocks produces helium on Earth. Earth gets its helium supply from the radioactive decay of rocks. It cannot be created in any artificial fashion. Since it is taken 4.7 billion years for natural decay to produce the Earth’s current helium supply, waiting around for the planet for making more isn’t really an option.
The $ 100 birthday balloon
To slow the depletion of the world’s helium supply, Professor Richardson suggests the price for helium be raised considerably. Making the gas 20 to 50 times more expensive would certainly attract notice. Consider what it can be like when a birthday balloon could cost as much as one hundred dollars. Bet you miss helium even more now.
Additional reading
Helium Privatization Act
helium.com/items/874929-understanding-the-helium-privitization-act-of-1996
The Independent
independent.co.uk/news/science/why-the-world-is-running-out-of-helium-2059357.html
University of Denver study on helium
mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/helium.htm
